Should we remove other mining tools?

So, as you all probably know, last month we saw a new development in the form of an upgrade system for the Matter Manipulator.

As a result of that, the recent (spoiler link ahead!)blog post listed this tidbit as "one of the things we need to do before 1.0":

Obviously, the part I want to talk about is mainly the latter half of that. What do you guys think? Should we get rid of all pickaxes/axes/drills and use only the matter manipulator(which would improve as our technology does)?

Here's my thoughts:
Pros

• We would have one tool for pretty much every mining task. No need to worry about whether we're working with wood/mineral/liquid.
  
• The MM is now basically built into the hotbar, so we may as well use it, right?
• The MM is a pretty cool gadget aesthetically speaking. IMO of course. Kind of our own little sonic screwdriver.
  
• As a sci-fi tool, suspension of disbelief applies more readily than it would for a manual tool (mining rocks with a pick would take hours of backbreaking labor, for example)
• The pickaxes and drills were made of materials that didn't really make sense anyway. And using a pickaxe/drill to move dirt or sand sounds like an exercise in futility.

Cons

• We already have assets for the manual tools in game. It would arguably be a waste to get rid of them now.
• If the current refinery system is also scrapped due to popular demand, that would leave armor as virtually the only use for the "jewelry" ores in the game (copper,silver,gold,platinum,diamond). Of course, I'm pretty sure those materials could have legitimate uses in ammunition, EMP shielding, integrated circuits, wiring, lasers, etc., however almost none of those things exist so far.
  
• I'm worried that upgrading could actually cause problems in some ways; what if my manipulator can mine 4x4 but I only want to mine a 2x2 square? We'd need a system to address that.
• I'd question whether a single tool that fits in the palm of one's hand can really be the best for any job regardless of the situation. While I can understand it rendering "manual labor" tools like a pickaxe or bucket obsolete, I would eventually expect to see high-tech mining lasers, water vaccum guns and such appear in the late game which would be more suited to specific tasks.
• If the matter manipulator stinks at first, how hard will it be to upgrade? Will it make the early game tedious as it arguably does now? Currently we can have something way better than the current-version manipulator within minutes of beaming down to the starting planet. Would that still be the case with a tech-based upgrade?

So yea, there you have it. I'll add a poll too, just to see what people think.

Anything else I missed?

 

Matter manipulator should star off as a POS and stay that way until you get a fully upgraded tool. Then you merge the tool with the manipulator and it gets that ability. Do this with all the tools.

In all seriousness though, the matter manipulator should never have a greater capacity than your current tool until the end of the game, but should be upgradable. It should never come to a point where you stop getting new tools because 'why? The matter manipulator upgrade is just around the corner'. Makes things more interesting.

 

IMHO I think that the currently integrated pickaxes and such should have higher mining rates (at the same tier as that of the MM... that is to say that if you had a steel tier MM and a steel pick the steel pick would mine quickly but wear out within minutes) at the cost of very low durability.

 

I think the MM should stay as it is now in Stable until around the point you get to the next tier's best, then it should get a 2x2 upgrade, so on and so forth. Getting rid of the other tools would be a waste in my opinion. The MM should be the end-game item though, better than the diamond drill in the end, but also take a lot of time and effort to get it that far. There's not a whole lot to do after getting the diamond drill, at least tool-wise.

 

I've mentioned my opinion on the matter in another post that was similar to this. Roughly about making more sci-fi tools.

How i stand on this though is to keep both, but like the others mention I would prefer it being sometime late game. Isn't the laser tool still in the assets? I wouldn't mind some things being balanced and such, but prefer them not getting rid of digging tools, as that is what they are. They don't move stuff around, just dig through it. The MM is the building tool throughout even the stable version of the game, and so far is the only tool that does that.

So really the upgrades are better off late game or near that in the very least so there would be progression instead of a jump. Not everything has to be high tech for the game to be decent. After all that notion would stifle the building materials for each planet. That is roughly my viewpoint; progression.

 

I'd prefer the matter manipulator only. If anything, I guess we could keep drills...

 

I had no clue we were making the game, ok should we add ammo?

 

This is a sci fi game. Having a millennia old pickax be more effective than a state of the art tool is absurd. However, I can accept that the matter manipulator is a universal tool and thus not as effective as other state of the art equipment. Whats more, I want to see are reason for this high civilization starship-piloting adventurer to use a pickax if one is around. I'd say no matter manipulator to begin with. Instead of items in the matter manipulator when you go to place them, have them appear in the character's hands and hand-place them.

After tier 2 or 3 then tools should become increasingly techy. Laser drills, atomic dissemblers, whatever. But a pickax should stay a pickax. No pickax should be able to chew through a steel building. Pickaxes may also be limited to 1 block at a time but have a higher effectiveness than an early matter manipulator, which has a wide coverage. So you might still carry a pickax for a while in order to quickly pluck out ores, but by tier 4-5 it should be entirely weeded out.

That's just my take. I'm content with whatever.

 

My first "this is awsome!" moment was realizing the matter manipulator may indeed be an all-purpose sci-fi-literate tool. My first "oh...crap" moment was when I had to make stone tools because they were, for some reason, more efficient.

I don't mind old fashioned tools being in the game, but not being able to upgrade the MM to at least match the ability of traditional tools really takes me out of the world. It might seem like a small thing, but so much immersion was lost for me...

 

Darn it, I illegally veto your statement

 

i say keep it the way it is now

even thinking about keeping that 1 block slow MM intell i can get 8 copper ingots makes me sick X.x

 

I have no problems with how the matter manipulator is set up now. Its greater area and power is offset at having two size settings (1x1 and current size) and the liquid option making pickaxes and drills a better option in water/large bodies of water.

 

Matter Manipulator should be obviously superior, with the other tools remaining mostly as jokes or flavor (or as a challenge for people who want to use them.)

 

Agreed.
I'm okay with Pickaxes being in the game and all, but seriously, why use them when you have a piece of futuristic-alien-technology-thing that makes digging easier?...